An elegant account of how one ancient language went global

An elegant account of how one ancient language went global

Hunting the origin of 40 per cent of the languages spoken today is a huge feat, but Laura Spinney's new book makes an excellent job of it

From Omar El Akkad to Laura Spinney: new books reviewed in short

Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global by Laura Spinney English is a West Germanic language and the Romance languages, including French and Spanish, are the daughters of Latin, but where did Latin come from? Laura Spinney’s refreshing and lively Proto will take the reader on an unlikely historical odyssey, diving into the mother of many tongues, both dead and alive, whose echoes can be heard from Scotland to China. Through historical multil…

Book review: Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, Laura Spinney

Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global by Laura Spinney is an exploration of how hundreds of languages share a single ancient ancestor.